Vancouver is playing host to the top female soccer players in North and Central America this week and next, and I will be sharing my thoughts on the tournament in this blog. I don't promise a report everyday, but certainly a few updates will be coming. First let me say that there are plenty of tickets still available, and if anyone is looking for a fun way to spend an evening, they should head down to BC Place and check it out. All of the details can be found at CONCACAF's website, but there are 2 games every evening (one at 5:00pm and one at 7:30pm), and one very cheap ticket will buy you access to both. 

The first two games of the tournament took place last night, with a game between Costa Rica and Cuba kicking (see what I did there?) things off. Costa Rica's speed and quick passing gave them the early lead over Cuba (with a goal from Saudy Rosales). Costa Rica dominated possession and some really skilled defensive play saved not one, but two shots headed into an otherwise open net. 

The main event of the night was Team Canada's debut in the tournament. The team was lead by their captain and outright star, Christine Sinclair, who scored 4 goals during the game, contributing to the 6-0 defeat of the national team from Haiti. The Canadian defence was hardly tested, but their controlled passing and movement on the ball set the tone for the game. There was one unfortunate injury, when the Haitian goalkeeper collided with one of her own players while retrieving a shot. The collision was brutal, and the goalkeeper was eventually evacuated to the hospital. No further details about her condition have been released at this time. 

Team Canada has been AMAZING in the preliminaries for the FIRST EVER Roller Derby World Cup, winning all three games (against France, Sweden, and Brazil) to be seeded second (2nd!). You can find the schedule here (hopefully updated soon), and you can stream it live on Derby News Network here.

Fun fact: Two Rideau Valley Roller Girls (aka Ottawa's number 1 competitive flat track league) are on Team Canada: Soul Rekker (#55) and Semi Precious (#10).

Fortuitous coincidence alert: the New Yorker's books blog, The Book Bench, posted an interview last week with Peter Richmond, the author of Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death and John Madden's Oakland Raiders. The book is Richmond's take on "the last great football team that played the sport for love and camaraderie, not money or fame."

The Raiders of the 1970s (they won the Super Bowl XI, in 1976) gained a reputation for their ferocious, hard-hitting intensity on the field, and their shaggy-haired, hard-partying habits off it. The team's veterans, Richmond notes, would actually show up for training camp early, to spend time socializing with each other, something that is inconceivable today.

When asked to explain how this rebelliousness and strength of character was able to arise (and has since died out), Richmond points to the administration of owner Al Davis and head coach John Madden, who both believed in a light disciplinary hand - so long as the players gave their all for the team on the weekend, they were free to do as they pleased during the week. But Richmond also points to the 1970s as being a particularly rebellious era in all of sports:

We are sitting here listening to Darren Dreger ask if Canadians should be worried that both Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo were both pulled in their most recent NHL games. Meanwhile, professional misanthrope Christopher Hitchens has an interesting take on this whole Olympics thing. Initial reaction: get a grip, Hitch! Sure, sports are not a cure-all for the ills of the world, and athletes can be unpleasant jerks, if not downright slimy (including, sometimes, Canadians). But you could make similar claims about, say, free speech: it often leads to conflict and suffering, and  people who exercise their right of free speech to the fullest often reveal themselves to be cruel, ignorant or both. (There are lots of people we'd like to see contract lockjaw.) But that's a poor argument for scorning the practice as a whole.

I can understand part of Hitchens's point, though. All the headlines about skiing, skating and sledding obscure other important stories. There is, for example, a new development in the war in Afghanistan -- involving Canadians, of course.

And finally, something totally unrelated: this, friends, is what an imaginative, top-notch piece of short fiction looks like.

Steve Yzerman announced Canada's mens hockey team roster at noon today.  

Too the disappointment (and horror) of people across Ottawa, beloved heart and soul Senator Mike Fisher didn't make the cut, while heartless goal-scorer Dany Heatley did.  

Heatley, who last summer made it clear he believes he is too good to represent the nation's capital as an Ottawa Senator, is apparently still willing to represent the nation itself at the Olypics.

I intend to cheer on team Canada with all of my heart, but Dany Heatley doesn't represent any part of the Canada I believe in.  Selfishness, arrogance, and a willingness to disparage the very communities that support us are traits that have nothing to do with my vision of this great nation.

The Olypics aren't just about going for gold.  They are about showing the world who we are as a country and a people.  Is Dany Heatley really the face we want to put on Canada for the rest of the world?  I don't think so.

The nightmare that ate up most of the summer for hockey fans in Ottawa, the Dany Heatley debacle, has finally come to an end.  The team, the fans, and the media can now, finally, concentrate on what really matters: returning the team to the heights of greatness from which it so quickly fell. 

 From the Sentators website:   

Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray announced today the club has acquired forwards Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek, and a second-round pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for forward Dany Heatley and Ottawa's fifth-round draft choice in 2010.

Cheechoo, 29, was San Jose's second-round pick (29th overall) in 1998 NHL Entry Draft. In 440 career National Hockey League games, the right-winger has scored 165 goals, added 126 assists and 304 penalty minutes. He also recorded 35 points (16 goals and 19 assists) and 32 penalty minutes in 58 career playoff games.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Cheechoo won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the NHL's leading goal scorer when he tallied 56 goals for the Sharks in 2005-06. Cheechoo was voted in as a starter for the 2007 NHL all-star game.

Michalek, 24, was San Jose's first-round pick (sixth overall) in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. In 317 career NHL games, the left-winger has scored 91 goals, added 123 assists and 184 penalty minutes. He has also recorded 16 points (10 goals and six assists) and 18 penalty minutes in 39 career playoff games.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Michalek recorded his third consecutive 20-goal season in 2008-09 when he scored 23 goals and added 34 assists in 77 games.

Heatley, 28, was acquired by the Senators from Atlanta on Aug. 23, 2005, in exchange for forward Marian Hossa and defenceman Greg de Vries. In four full seasons with Ottawa, Heatley ranks fourth all-time with the club in goals (180), seventh in assists (182) and seventh in points (362). He missed only nine regular-season games due to injury (all in the 2007-08 season).

The long awaited Dany Heatley press conference finally took place on Friday. I was going to link to the transcript, but then I thought, why bother? Heatley said basically nothing of interest. Here's the short version of his shockingly banal answers:

• He wants out of Ottawa because he feels his role on the team has diminished.
• He turned down the Edmonton trade because he wanted to be presented with more than one option as to where he was going to go.
• He isn't concerned that his reputation has taken a hit because everyone he has played with knows he a "team guy".
• He didn't mean to personally insult the people of Edmonton or Ottawa, but he apparently doesn't feel he owes anyone an apology either.
• If he hasn't been traded by the time training camp starts, he will honour his contract and play for the Sens.

I don't even know what to say at this point. Like everyone else out there (included the parties involved) I just wish this whole saga would come to an end.

Over at the Ottawa Citizen, Ken Warren has a great article about Jacob Barrette, a graphic design who put together an old school inspired jersey for the Ottawa Senators. How much better is this jersey than the Sens current third jersey? A thousand times better, that's how much! The jersey honors the Senators heritage, while maintaining a sleek modern design. Well done, Mr. Barrette!

Too bad the team hasn't adopted this look!

While still trying to deal Dany Heatly - a talented goal scorer unwilling to put in a full effort every game - the Ottawa Senator's have signed Alex Kovalev - a talented goal scorer unwilling to put in a full effort every game. 

The fact that Kovalev was signed in the midst of the Heatly debacle would tend to suggest the ex-Montreal Canadian recognizes the need to put in a consistent effort under his new coach Cory Clouston.   Here's hoping he can help turn thing around for this troubled Sens team.

 In other Sens news, the team has signed tough-guy Chris Neal to a four year deal, meaning Neal may be able to play his entire career in Ottawa - a rare feat in the modern NHL.  In an interview on Team 1200 yesterday, Neil expressed his respect for the Senators organization and his love of the city itself, noting he intends to remain in Ottawa after he retires from hockey. 

This week's youtube clips are are designed to help patch over the gaping wound in my soul caused by the lack of a major international soccer tournament this summer. They feature two of the greatest teams ever to appear at the World Cup, Brazil's 1970 team with Pele, Jairzinho, Gerson, and Carlos Alberto, and Holland's 1974 team featuring Johann Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Arie Haan, and Johnny Rep. Ah, 1970s soccer - bright shirts, shaggy hair, spectacular plays...I'm nostalgic for it, and I wasn't even born yet.

Two days ago Jim Balsillie tabled an offer today to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes, following the team's bankruptcy filing. The offer to purchase the team for $212.5 million (U.S.) is conditional on relocation to Southern Ontario, to become the seventh NHL franchise in Canada.

"The current team ownership asked that I table an offer to purchase the Coyotes and significant discussions resulted in an offer that is in the best interests of the franchise, the NHL, and the great hockey fans of Canada and Southern Ontario," Mr. Balsillie said.

The Carleton University basketball team won their sixth CIS championship in seven years, beating the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 87-77 at Scotiabank Place yesterday.

The Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun have the full story.

 Congratulations to my alma mater!